Diversity study shows top Hollywood films still have a ‘representational crisis’

Hollywood films are still largely a playground for straight white male characters.

A study conducted by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism analyzed the top 100 films of each year from 2007-2014 (excluding 2011). The study took into account gender, racial and LGBT representation and — surprise, surprise — the results over the past seven years are disappointingly bleak.

Character portrayals in film were also analyzed. For example, a character's nudity, hypersexualization and age were all taken into consideration. Women in sexualized attire has actually increased from 27% to 27.9% over the years, while nudity has jumped to 26.4%. By comparison, men's sexualized attire has only increased from 4.6% to 8%, while nudity has increased from 6.6% to 9.1%.

The Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative has authored numerous similar reports about the state of diversity in film for years now. Each time, the figures paint a bleak picture of largely unchanging representation in the blockbuster film world.

"If we existed in a world described in the pages of this report, we would have a population crisis on our hands," Smith says.

Thankfully, she has a few solutions for how to solve Hollywood's homogenous problem. But first, here are how those research figures pan out for films from 2007-2014 (excluding 2011).

Gender

Women only represented 30.2% of the 30,835 speaking roles in the 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014 (excluding 2011). Overall, only 11% of those films had women for roughly half of the speaking roles.

This year alone, only 21 out of 100 films had a female lead, or co-lead, character. That figure has only risen 1% since 2007. None of those roles in 2014 were played by women over 45 years old.

Broken down by genre, women only represented 21.8% of speaking roles in action/adventure films, and 34% of characters in comedies. Less than a quarter of speaking characters in animated films were female, a 7.4% decrease from 2010.

Only two women directed the top 100 films of 2014. Over the past seven years, only 28 women have directed films in the top 700. Three of those women were African-American.

The breakdown of women involved behind the camera in the top 100 films of 2014.

Black or African American speaking characters were not featured in 17 of the top 100 films of 2014. Asian speaking characters were not included in 40 films in 2014's top 100.

"When more than 40 films do not depict one Asian character, I think we have a representational crisis going on in the film industry,” Smith says.

Behind the scenes, only 4.7% of the top 2014 directors were black, which breaks down to 5 out of 107 directors. Only 5.8% directors of the top 700 films overall were black.

That figure is even lower for Asian directors, who only helmed 19 of the top 700 films.

LGBT representation

This year marks USC Annenberg's first comprehensive dive into LGBT portrayal in films. Out of the 4,610 speaking characters in 2014's top 100 films, only 19 were portrayed as gay, lesbian or bisexual. None were transgender.

Overall, those LGB characters were overwhelmingly male (63.2%) and overwhelmingly white (84.2%). When it comes to character portrayal, the study finds there was little representation of "healthy romantic/sexual relationships." None of the gay or bisexual male characters were shown in a committed relationships, and no LGB characters were portrayed as parents raising children together.

The study also states that a few of the gay and bisexual characters were shown concealing their identity.

Solutions

"There is a possibility that Hollywood can change," Smith says. "I think it's important for strategies to be tailored to specific problems."

Naturally, the Initiative has already come up with a few solutions for tackling specific issues seen over and over again in Hollywood.

To improve gender parity onscreen, Smith says each top grossing film should simply add five female characters. If that's done, gender inequality could be solved in four years.

In addition, it could have a bigger subconscious impact, able to "counter any sort of implicit bias when people are crafting these stories," Smith says.

If writers suddenly have to add five new female characters, it could radically shift the way they perceive a character's potential.

For the lack of inequality behind the scenes jobs like directing, Smith suggests Hollywood adapt the NFL's Rooney Rule. It requires that the NFL interview people of color for available head coach positions.

Director Tim Story (left) poses with Kevin Hart at the London premiere of 'Ride Along.' Story was one of few blockbuster directors of color in 2014.

"When you hire a director, you have to think about people from an underrepresented category," Smith says. Considering how gung-ho Hollywood is to give relatively unknown white, male directors a shot at major films, a modified Rooney Rule could help shake things up.

"Internationally, it actually made significantly more money," Smith says.

Tangible options Hollywood decision-makers could take advantage of in order to push for progress. For too long, Hollywood blockbusters have catered to the same audience. Smith says it's time to change all that.

"We could create change in a much more strategic, programmatic way, rather than doing this report every year and seeing that the status quo has been sustained once again."

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